It's not dead!

I'lll bring it back... sometime....

Excuses:
I moved out into the country (see my chicken thread)
I got salaried so I work 50 hr weeks


Real Reason:
I'm lazy and I kept getting flagged on craigslist.

But I want to do it again! so, help me craft a good post to use on craigslist and I'll put it up.

12/18/2009 7:12:07 PM

I wonder why people were flagging you. Thats odd.

12/18/2009 7:58:53 PM

say that it's for a book or something. people do not understand the concept of actually being interested in something, so they flag you.

12/19/2009 3:47:01 PM

I'm doing this now in Santa Monica, CA. Today I met with someone who started out by telling me how to play the bagpipes (although no demonstration was possible in the coffee shop), and then he said he wanted to teach me "the importance of fat in baking." He told me a lot about the chemistry of baking, like the differences in melting points between butter, vegetable shortening, margarine, etc. We discussed why it's important to keep the butter cold until the last minute when you mix it in when you're making scones, how you create the different textures in the dough between different types of cookies, why box mixes for brownies generally result in a denser brownie instead of being lighter and thicker. Then he told me a bit about baking bread instead of dessert-type stuff, and gave me some of his favorite dessert recipes. It was awesome!

On Monday, a nationally-ranked Go player is going to teach me how to play Go, and I'm meeting with someone on Tuesday that I'm not sure what they're going to tell me about. One person asked if she could buy me coffee in a few weeks and have me talk about what I've gotten out of the experiences of talking to other people, and another asked if we could split the cost of our drinks if I talk about something too.

[Edited on January 8, 2010 at 8:58 PM. Reason : ]

1/8/2010 8:57:55 PM

Love this thread.
This shit is inspiring. It even makes me wish I liked the taste of coffee.

1/8/2010 11:52:32 PM

^^

what did you write in your craigslist post?

1/9/2010 3:04:09 AM

I'm thinking, if more people than just me are doing this, we should all collaborate on a blog. I'll pm admin rights to the blog I've set up to anyone that wants to add content.

1/9/2010 3:11:50 AM

hmm

1/27/2010 4:07:23 AM

I'm sad there aren't more stories posted

1/27/2010 7:19:01 AM

I've tried maybe 5 or 6 times to post again on craigslist and I'm getting flagged within minutes.


this was my latest post

Quote :

" Once again, I'm trading coffee for a story, talent or memory. The deal is I buy you a coffee at your favorite coffee shop and in exchange you tell or teach me something that is inspiring to you. Anything at all, no restrictions, If it's meaningful to you then it's meaningful to me. I'm leaving for Hawaii on Friday (29th) and wont be back until Sunday (7th) and I usually work until five on weekdays. Any other time I'm open and I'd love to buy you coffee. I've tried to post this here before, and in barter, and they both get flagged. If it's in the wrong place, by all means flag it, but send me a quick email telling me why. Thanks! "

I've posted in free, barter, and community. None work, it's getting pretty frustrating

1/27/2010 2:44:20 PM

i dont understand why it keeps getting flagged. Maybe shoot an email to craigslist and see what they think? Maybe then can point you in the right direction.

1/27/2010 3:51:56 PM

^ Just did that, we'll see what they say

1/27/2010 4:26:07 PM

Wow! This is such a great idea!

1/27/2010 9:01:06 PM

Glad to see you're still doing this. I'd love to start doing it here in Charlotte.

1/31/2010 9:42:07 PM

I'm glad this is still of interest to people on here. I haven't really taken the time to write this out in a nice story or blog format, but I've still been doing this since my last post. Here's one of the better talks I've had:


A few weeks ago, I met with someone who spent two years in Kazakhstan teaching economics and finance with the Peace Corps. Before he went, he had never spoken a word of Russian, and all he got was a 10-week crash course in basic conversational speech... nothing about technical Russian for business or anything that would be very useful for teaching. He fumbled his way through it and said he learned a lot of patience in the experience, which usually consisted of trying his damnedest to explain a concept ten different ways in elementary language until someone "got it," then watching that student explain it to everyone else. Ideally, the Peace Corps wanted someone who was a college professor and could speak Russian fluently for the position, but how many professors or businessmen enlist in Peace Corps, really? How many of those speak Russian? He apparently was "qualified" because he had TA'd an introductory finance course while he was getting a master's.

Turns out that the college he was assigned to was essentially a diploma mill; rich people could show up at the administration office, pay four years' of tuition and fees, and walk out with a degree certificate and transcript on the very same day. A year into his term, that site got shut down and he was reassigned to a new role which wasn't much better. Where he was staying, the heat didn't get turned on until November even though it was already nearly freezing temperatures in late September. He told me he always gets a kick out of talking to other Peace Corps folks who already spoke decent Spanish and went to some Central American country and helped improve local agriculture or water access, never once having to wear long sleeves.

After his two-year term was up, he enlisted in a program similar to Peace Corps, wherein he went to Russia to teach high school kids. While he was there, he started a youth tolerance organization that brought together children from six different ethnic groups in the region he was in and took them through a weekend camp of activities that taught them to trust each other and get over the rampant prejudice and discrimination that prevailed in the area. He said that many of the kids' parents would refuse to speak to the other children or their parents, but that they wanted their kids to go to the camp because they at least realized it was important for their kids to take steps towards a more tolerant future.

Five of the high school students he taught helped him start the organization, and they stayed with it once he came back to the US. He heard that within the last year, three or four of them were arrested by the government and the others are in hiding. Apparently the government there still does not take too kindly to activism; the problem apparently is that one of the ethnicities in that area are Meskhetian Turks, who are still actively discriminated against by the Russian government.

2/1/2010 3:20:10 AM